


Aradia Megido and the Island of Imbroglio

by trixietrotter



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Adventure, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-24 23:38:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1621163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trixietrotter/pseuds/trixietrotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dr. Aradia Megido is a student, teacher, and guiding force in archaeology. That is in till she botches an expedition by making a bad call, now her world famous employers have given her one last chance. Escort the semi-disgraced princess of an obscure country, safely to some other country, without using any type of transportation that can be described as 'fast' or 'simple'. It's going to be a long trip, that's not going to go smoothly, at all.</p><p>An Indiana Jones type, humanstuck AU.</p><p>-----</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aradia Megido and the Island of Imbroglio

  Aradia turned her nose to the sky, and closed her eyes. For a brief moment she was transported away from the crowded seaport, feeling the sun on her face and the scent of salt air distracted her. But a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach snapped her back from her brief escape. She was standing at the edge of the busiest seaport in one of the few countries in the world that still played host to a monarchy. Aradia’s eyes widened at the empty spot next to her, and opened her mouth wide enough to whisper; “Oh shit.” She jerked herself around to view the bulk of the crowd, fishermen, deckhands, all busy with their work, all having places to go. Through the mess of bulky men and unpleasant dispositions she caught a glimpse of fuschia fabric. She made her way through the port, elbowing her way through the crowd, mindless apologies spilling out of her mouth. Finally she spotted her charge, who in the short time they’d been separated, was suddenly talking pleasantly with some dockhands. Aradia sighed, her charge, how’d she get roped into this? ‘You know how, Araida.’ She thought to herself, ‘You fucked up.’ A month earlier she’d botched an expedition that had been funded by the Derse Museum, one of the most prestigious museums in the world. Though the entire ‘botching’ of the expedition wasn’t entirely her fault, she did take the entirety of the blame. The museum gave her a chance to set things right, she just had to escort the spoiled princess of some obscure country, to some other obscure country. The princess, Princess Feferi, she was beautiful, Aradia has to admit. Her hair was long and styled into one long braid,  her fingers frosted with gold jewelry. She was a vision in a fuschia sundress, but now that vision needed to be on a boat headed northwest. Flashing the the dockhands a smile, Aradia pulled Feferi away from her conversation. The princess protested but Aradia didn’t care, “I was in the middle of a conversation!” Feferi exclaimed. “I don’t care.” Aradia continued pulling her towards their ship, “Lighten up, Ms.Adventurer!” Feferi countered. Aradia groaned, “The name’s Aradia.” Feferi smiled, not that Araida saw her, she was trying to get permission to board the ship. “Aradia’s a pretty name!” Feferi said, but Aradia wasn’t paying attention. “C’mon.” She pulled Feferi up a ramp onto a medium sized ship. It was going to be a long trip.

 

The pair arrived at their cabin on a steel ship called the ‘Ocean’s Wife’, a creative name that had distracted the princess for a full minute before she noticed the size of their quarters. “Is this how, normal people usually travel?” Feferi asked carefully, she seemed to picking her words carefully, as not to offend. The cabin was tight, but it was by far the largest, Aradia herself had ever traveled in. She spent most of her seaward journeys in the cargo hold, cheaper that way. Though Aradia did her best not to laugh, “Not by a long shot.” Feferi sighed, and looked around helplessly. The cabin had a port hole and one cot hanging from the cabin wall, the princess’. Aradia herself had a chair, chained to the wall, she mentally shrugged, could be worse. Aradia went to move towards her chair when the boat lurched forward. Having been through it more than times than she could count, Aradia managed to keep her balance. The princess wasn’t as lucky, she stumbled and lost her footing. Aradia instinctively stuck her arms out and steadied Feferi, and went right back to her quest for her chair. Feferi moved over to the porthole, and glanced back at Aradia. Who had, by then, angled her chair so that she could press her feet against the opposite wall. Aradia dropped bag by the chair and her hat over her eyes, then folded her arms across her stomach. “Dr. Megido, we’re moving!” Feferi said, regardless of her companion's state. “Yep, we’re really churning those waves.” Aradia agreed, “You should get some sleep, it’s a long trip.” Aradia took her thumb and pushed her hat up a tad, “And, it's just Aradia.”

 

 It was some time later, that Feferi inquired something of Aradia. “How do you sleep on this?” Feferi asked, pointing to the cot she was sitting on, “I feel like I’m doing something wrong.” Aradia shrugged, “You’re not doing anything wrong, you’re just not used to it.” Feferi sighed, and brought her knees up to her chest. Feferi’s eyes trailed down Aradia’s person, examining the items on her belt.

“Why do you have a whip?”

“Because I like kinky sex.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Your a professor, right?” the Princess inquired further. “I’m a scientist, but I teach at a college.” Aradia corrected. Feferi responded with a quiet, “Oh.” Aradia picked her hat back up and dropped it back in it’s correct position. Feferi ran her hands over the cot absentmindedly, “So, what do you do in your leisure time?”. Aradia smiled, “Archaeologists don’t have leisure time.” Feferi responded with another, “Oh.”  Aradia glanced down at the floor, “There’s something you want to ask me, you're trying to get me to bring it up.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth Feferi didn’t hold back, “So do you explore ruins and find treasure?”. Aradia scratched the back of her head, “If I’m lucky, ruins are usually picked over, you find the most in tombs.” Feferi’s eyes widened, “So you're down there with dead bodies, and poison traps?”. Aradia laughed, “If I’m lucky most of the traps have stopped working by the time I get there.” The two women passed some hours chatting about Aradia’s ventures into the land of the dead. Aradia enjoyed having someone interested in her work, it had been awhile since someone actually cared. After a while, Aradia made sure to interject, “Princess you really should try to get some sleep.” Aradia stood up out of her chair and stretched, “If you don’t you’ll regret it later, trust me.” Feferi noticed Aradia inching towards the door, “Where are you going?”. “I’m just going to stretch my legs, and talk to the captain,” Aradia assured her, “I won’t go far.” Feferi issued a reluctant, “Alright.” and Aradia exited the cabin. They’d been at sea longer than Aradia initially thought, the sky was already growing dark. She ran her hand along the railing of the steel ship. As she walked towards the captain’s cabin she was struck by an ominous feeling in her stomach as she looked out over the sea. There was a dark gathering of clouds. Once again Aradia turned her nose to the air, she could smell rain.

 

 Feferi had finally managed fall asleep a while after Aradia stepped out. Roughly two hours had passed and the rocking of the ship awoke her. The waves were getting violent and the sound of rain pelting the steel ship was almost deafening. The commotion caused her to bolt upward for the cot, the small metal room now illuminated with a flickering light bulb, was swaying up and down with the rest of the ‘Ocean’s Wife’. Feferi had expected to wake up and see Aradia, back in her chair with her feet pressed against the wall. But she was nowhere to be found, in the cabin, not that there was anywhere to hide. Her eyes flickered to Aradia’s bag, it had rolled across the cabin and was being jostled every time the ship bobbed up and down. Feferi hopped down off the cot and scooped up her counterpart’s bag and slipped the strap over her head and onto her shoulder. ‘I’m out of here,’ was the main thought running through her head as it took all her strength to open the cabin door. The princess sucked in her breath as the storm’s harsh wind hit her in the face, a combination of sea water and rain sloshed up around her ankles. She made her way towards the back of the ship, grasping at what ever she could to keep her balance. She spotted a pair of steps leading up to a high deck, and hugging the railing she attempted to climb them. The wind was blowing so hard it whipped her hair out of a braid. Her dress was soaking wet and the wind blew it violently, every time it hit her legs it stung horribly. After slipping three times on the first step, and looking a shoe, she made it up the steps. There were panicked dock hands running around closing hatches. Aradia was among them, helping the best she could, till something drew everyone else’s attention. Feferi stained to see what was happening, it was obviously bad, because Aradia whipped around and went running towards her. Aradia, just now seeing her, grabbed her as soon as she got close. Aradia wrapped her arms around Feferi, from behind and held her, tight. Before Fef could respond there was the horrible sound of twisting metal, screeching over the storm. “DON’T LET GO OF ME!” Aradia yelled as loud as she could through the storm, and the ship jutted upward at an angle. Throwing everyone at the back towards the front, throwing the princess and her bodyguard backwards. They flew down the stairs Feferi had just climbed, and scattered deckhands flew back as well, there were shouts and screams that sounded like whispers through the storm. Feferi and Aradia came to hard stop at a wall, Aradia taking the brunt of the blow and the weight of Feferi on top of her. They’d both lost their footing and the princess was now literally in Aradia’s lap. The spill knocked the air of Aradia, and she pressed her head into the back of Feferi’s neck as she wheezed trying to regain her breath. Feferi, slipping on the deck, turned around taking Aradia’s face in her hands. “Please be okay, please be okay!” Feferi repeated like she was chanting a spell. Aradia sucked in a sharp breath, and violent coughed. “Oh thank god!” Feferi yelled above the storm, Feferi went to catch her breath as well, but Aradia was already up and dragging her by the strap of her bag along the wall they fell on to. Scrambling across the wall Aradia desperately searched for a flotation device. The rain was still pouring and every drop felt like thousands sharp needles hitting their skin. Aradia turned her nose to the sky again, it smelled like death.

 

 


End file.
